Infinity Curve - Lamentations to Unseen Friends Across the Vastness of Space

EP. 58 - UNSEEN FRIENDS

HE SPOKE INTO THE microphone, comfortable with the intent but uneasy with the delivery. Rick knew he was boring and was reminded of that fact every time he talked with Sofia.

"Within ten seconds, she'll yawn unconsciously," he mused, "like every other person I've known. My God, my dear sisters did the same, bless their souls. Even now in 2075, thirty-eight years since their deaths in the Debacle, I still remember their instinctive yawning at my fragile ego's expense. Even Rodney often yawned, and he was my best friend."

"Was it the topical content? I doubt that, since what I discuss excites me greatly. And I'm not that odd, am I?"

"How the hell can I be captivating or interesting for unknown, unseen friends who can't truly appreciate the language and its nuances? Huh," he chuckled. "Perhaps they won't recognize how boring I am. Perhaps my plan will wither and die, and Sofia and me and the dogs along with it. If so, these aliens will never get to listen to the world's most effective sleep aid."

He peered into the wood-framed oval mirror on the wall above his desk, its gold leaf peeling in sheets. "Then again, it might be my drab appearance combined with the monotone rhythm and droning tempo. Ah, so nice to have my hair back, though. Too bad those anti-aging shots couldn't make me a more vivacious and interesting speaker. No tech for that, not yet."

Rick was uneasy that his first recorded message was intentionally unscripted. Such lack of planning was very unlike the engineer in him.

"From buckets of scraps, I created a dozen high powered laser arrays in the space of a barn, constructed the power plant and cabling, and executed a plan to inform future unseen worlds about humanity's flawed evolution. I did this surreptitiously, avoiding the prying eyes of the oligarchs. Funny, though, I never wrote a damn outline for my doctoral thesis, so it never got written."

He tapped his desk nervously. "Hell, I'll wing-it for most of this, because it's the only way I know how. Whoever they are, somewhere out there, perhaps many billions of years from now, I hope they capture my momentary burst of light. It will be as bright as a thousand suns."

Sitting back on his chair, he imagined again for the umpteenth time what the signal might look like at a planet a million light years from Earth. "They won't care if I was Shakespeare or an ignorant street urchin. I sure as hell won't care unless I'm wrong about my concepts of a Supreme Being. Hmm, Supreme Creator, possibly, since the word 'Being' personifies something that exhibits power or control over us."

"I don't believe there's an external controller in this life. Not the lives of humans. Not the one I've lived, given what we've done with what was available to us in the first place. Now, shut up, Rick, and proceed with this next step that took you both a decade to develop."

He began the first of his recordings.

* * *

"For my unseen friends across the vastness of space. I only wish someone sent us this same communication long ago. They either failed to or we were not listening. Perhaps we were too presumptuous about how we might hear from you. Did we not care enough to discover your message? Conversely, perhaps every sentient race failed like us, and I'm the only being in this infinite universe of infinite planets who has tried such an ambitious but likely unfruitful thing. I believe in infinity, so I seriously doubt it."

"We must have overlooked the obvious, like how you played with spectrum or photons. Some way you found to communicate that we never understood. Gravity waves. Short EM bursts. Whatever. Either way, humanity didn't observe any messages. However, you will discover what I am transmitting in a momentary flash of visual brilliance, assuming you have eyes to see."